The iRobot Roomba 694 is not a mapping robot vacuum; instead this budget vacuum is more like a giant pool ball that moves in a straight line until it bounces off of a wall or other obstacle. Unlike other bump-and-clean vacuums such as the Eufy RoboVac 11s, which will wander around until the battery is low, you’re able to tell the Roomba 694 to clean for a set amount of time before heading home. Via the app, your options are 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, or none. I found that a 15-minute cleaning was enough time for the robot to do a quick pass in my dining room, where the dock is located, and a small section of my kitchen. This vacuum is also smart enough that if you start it off of its dock, it’ll still return to the dock when cleaning is complete. I started another 15-minute cleaning with the Roomba placed out of view of its dock and was pleasantly surprised when the bot found it at the end of the cleaning session.
There are fancy, high-end robot vacuums, and then there are models like the iRobot Roomba 694, which will clean your floors with minimal hassle. No creating a map of your home, no massive learning curve for an app, just move the electrical cords out of the way and press “Clean.” In our iRobot Roomba 694 review, we found a robot vacuum that does just that. But it’s connected to an easy-to-use app that enhances the user experience and adds some higher end bells and whistles -- like geofencing -- that are typically found on more expensive robot vacuums.
Using the iRobot Home app (Android and iOS(opens in new tab)), I was able to quickly connect the Roomba 694 to my Wi-Fi network. The instructions within the app are illustrated and easy to follow.

The Roomba 694 can be ordered around by Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant. Though I’ve tested many other robot vacuums with this capability, this was the first time that my kitchen Amazon Echo immediately informed me that it was connected to a robot vacuum. The Echo in the kitchen started telling me how to initiate a cleaning while the Roomba 694 was also declaring itself connected in the dining room. The ensuing cacophony of computerized voices made me wonder how the Jetsons never lost their minds.

You can send the Roomba 694 on a cleaning mission using either the app or the physical buttons on the bot. However, there are functions specific to each method. A spot cleaning may only be initiated from the button on the machine, which makes sense as you’d typically place the Roomba 694 in the specific area you’d want cleaned.